Well, I knew as soon as I mentioned the fabulous weather, we would have a nasty day.  It wasn’t horrible but…

We went to get the car, stopping for coffee on the way.  The destination: Ostuni, La Citta Bianca, north of here, between Bari and Brindisi.  We drove passed miles and miles of olive groves.  I tried to shoot from the car but we were moving fast.

As we are driving it appears we are driving right into a storm.  Of course, we had left the rain gear at the apartment.  Even though the sun was gone we could still see Ostuni from far off, a white vision on a hill. This picture really doesn’t do it justice.

We parked in the first lot we saw and walked up to the Piazza Liberta and the beautiful St. Francis church there.  We kept walking up hill, straight ahead and all over, through a lovely little urban park and residential streets.  We were officially lost.  I had read somewhere that the streets of Ostuni have no plan and it’s very easy to get lost.  I verify.  Finally I went into a shop and asked directions to the Cathedral.  We had over shot it by a long way but we still loved our walk.  Every minute we think the sky is going to open up and we’ll be soaked; it’s getting darker and blustery and even cold.  But not a drop fell.  We finally climbed up to the little piazza of the

see how gray the sky is!

Cathedral and found Osteria Piazzetta Cattedrale;  recommended by Amy it was the most upscale place we’ve been to.  It was hard to tell if they were open but they were and we went in at 12:30 to wait out the rain.  No rain ever fell but we had a delightful lunch there.  We shared a beautiful appetizer of three small balls (golf ball size) of burrata with slices of local capicola on top and pomegranate seeds, some greens and pretty bright green olive oil.  It was lovely.  I had a nice piece of fish with a (little too much) sweet and bright citrus sauce and Ken had lamb chops.  the best dish was the dessert–warm chocolate mousse cake with hazelnut ice cream!

We took the nice stroll back to the car and I saw this charming little garden with St. Francis in the center.

Driving home we pulled off onto a road through the olive groves.  The trees are so old and beautiful.

The light was terrible and I took this from the car but you can get the idea.

After our rest time, we were still pretty full from lunch so we just went for a walk finally stopping at a place called 7di7.  (Seven of seven???)  It was 8:00 and they were having “happy hour”.  For €9 you get a drink and a plate for the appetizer bar.  There was a really tasty barley salad on there and I asked the man what they called it in Italian.  When he said “orzo”  I had my doubts but I checked on my phone and it is true.  A long talk ensued about orzo in America and barley and I ended up leaving there with a package of barley!  We drank some Franciacorta with the food and we came home.  Sweet memory and a really nice spot.

they even played nice music!

We’ve started watching “Stranger Things” on Netflix.  Spoooooky!

Cannot believe this was our last day in Puglia.  It really flew by!